June 03, 2016

Progressives are driven to regulate -- have sights on e-cigarettes

Progressives generally make no bones about their desire to regulate anything that moves, so they were natural allies with big pharma and big tobacco in the battle to stop e-cigarettes. Some would call this a baptist and bootlegger situation. And while that might be an apt label, it's old fashioned politics with special interests combining forces to get what they want through government and recruiting compliant politicians who will carry their wishes through the sausage factory to get laws passed that will hurt the competition.

Drug companies favoring the FDA rules—usually big backers of Democrats—have huge sums invested in prescription smoking-cessation drugs, covered in many cases under the Democrat-passed Affordable Care Act, which they helped shape. They now face stiff competition from readily available e-cigarettes. Similarly, tobacco companies, left flat-footed by the growth of the upstart vaping market, also support the FDA rules as they look to shore up market positions in both tobacco and e-cigarettes.

Some use e-cigarettes because they don't produce the carcinogens that tobacco cigarettes do. Some use them as a way to quit nicotine all together. Others use them because of the healing power nicotine has on some diseases, although that's probably a tiny segment.

In any event, the e-cigarette industry should be encouraged not destroyed. Before piling on regulations, the FDA should do some research to try to identify harmful effects of vaping so users can decide for themselves whether e-cigarettes are right for them.